GovernmentExecutive.com

ICE doesn't have a monopoly on mega-mergers. The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, ICE's sister agency, is involved in its own reorganization, which also happens to be the largest worker retraining effort in government. Over the next year, the agency plans to merge three inspection jobs - currently performed by former Customs, INS, and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service inspectors - into two positions: CBP officer and agriculture specialist. All told, 18,000 inspectors will be trained.

"It's a huge process," says Andrew Maner, director of the agency's Transition Management Office. Maner led a working group that developed the two new positions after studying the inspection process. Officials decided that a single CBP officer could inspect both people and goods, duties currently split between former INS and Customs inspectors, as well as handle basic plant and animal inspections. Busy ports will have agriculture specialists on hand to conduct more rigorous checks of plants.

Inspectors will get three months of training, which will take place in the field. Federal employee unions did not participate in Maner's group, and some union leaders have questioned whether a single inspector can handle the complexity of the inspections previously carried out by INS and Customs agents. But Maner, who crisscrossed the country to discuss the plan with inspectors at nine ports, believes most inspectors will accept the proposal. "I think it was received very, very well," he says.

One question Maner couldn't answer involved grooming standards. Before the merger, Customs inspectors could wear beards, but INS inspectors had to be clean-shaven. "We're looking at a policy for CBP officers now," he says. Maner has convened a working group to create "unifying symbols" for CBP, and he is quick to note that the CBP patch is modeled after the old patch worn by INS inspectors. "I am highly resistant to the notion that [CBP] is a Customs takeover."

Like his counterparts at ICE, Maner believes reorganization will improve operations in the field. Inspectors already are sharing high-tech detection equipment with the Border Patrol, another component of CBP, and officials in Washington are closely monitoring daily reports of activity at the border.

COMMENTS

• You might revisit your original 10/15/2003 story. We're three days into Maner's grooming standards. NTEU is not pursuing CBP very hard- lots of hand-wringing and they might seek some sort of federal arbitration, but nothing definite, nothing positive. CBP, for their part, have implemented this odious policy with NO input from the field, and NO indications that this law-enforcement appearance will result in any law-enforcement compensation. Note that CBP's stated purpose was to "improve" employee morale; this is definitely not the result. Note also that the "surveys" they took which indicated this is what the traveling public wants do not exist. The opportunity to improve morale- to allow INS to adopt Customs’ grooming standards is lost, not likely to return. In the location where I work, there are about 80 employees. I have yet to hear that anyone likes the new policy. Indeed, a dozen males and two females (including one from management) have indicated that they don’t like this policy. Not overwhelmingly statistical proof, but good enough for me. That this policy is unwelcome among the uniformed employees is hardly questioned. The stated CBP motivation stems from no credible basis. Look at CBP’s mission statement- fight terrorism, interdict narcotics, protect the revenue. The unfounded belief that such grooming standards are beneficial has yet to be proven. Not that I blame CBP for not trying- how could one prove that no beards promote anti-terror efficiency? If CBP were to dangle the bureaucratic carrot (law enforcement status akin to series 1811) and the concomittant retirement benefits, one might agree to these quasi-military standards. Perhaps you can ask Maner for his surveys, for the reasons behind this policy. It's ironic, isn't it- if a CBP officer should catch Osama bin Laden, he'd get to keep his beard, but the CBP officer who nabbed him would not be allowed to wear one. GovExec.com reader Posted October 22, 2004 4:31 PM
• The concept of having inspectors from three agencies with totally different missions, training, experience, etc. becoming one border inspection agency seems more than a little absurd. It would be like taking a psychiatrist, a surgeon, and a gynecologist, who have vastly different medical training and experience, and telling them to do each others jobs. After all, isn't each one a doctor?!! That is similar to this proposal. No one person can learn all the complicated rules and regulations involving customs, immigration and agriculture, and do an adequate job screening for each function at the border. Those who say otherwise have obviously never worked at any of those jobs. As a former customs inspector, and a college graduate (with honors), I received immigration and agriculture training, and found it to be complex and confusing, especially the immigration classes. I was happy to be able to refer questions to qualified and trained immigration and agriculture inspectors. The government is seeking to make the border inspectors jacks of all trades, but they will actually be masters of none!!! GovExec.com reader Posted November 19, 2003 3:58 PM